News + Features

Are You Ready For Puppy Bowl 2018?

If you love puppies, the Puppy Bowl is the TV event that you can’t miss!

By Catalina Barrios

I love dogs. I am a proud dog owner and dream in having a house with a big yard where I can have lots of dogs, having fun, running around each other, or playing doggy-games in the snow. These days, we see dogs everywhere, in the park, on the streets, in magazine and TV ads, movies and shows, and this doesn’t change just because it’s the day of the big game.

Millions of people around the world watch the Super Bowl and although I am not a football fan, even I love watching the commercials and halftime shows. One of my favorites was the 2016 halftime show with Coldplay, Bruno Mars and Beyonce. What a presentation! What a spectacle! It’s truly world class entertainment at its best.

Now, what if I told you there is a also Puppy Bowl?! Just imagining that something so amazingly cute might exist makes you want to reach for your remote control and tune in for some fumble-y, clumsy, puppy love. That’s right friends, you can take this time to start planning and get yourselves ready for the Puppy Bowl 2018 which will air Sunday, February 4, 2018.

The Puppy Bowl, an annual television program on Animal Planet, imitates an American football bowl game, similar to the Super Bowl, but with puppies being the main players. It is shown each year on Super Bowl Sunday and consists of footage of puppies playing inside a model stadium. Only puppies between 12 and 21 weeks old are allowed on the show since there is a height and weight limit due to the size limitations of the play area. The puppies featured in the Puppy Bowl are all from shelters and they must show they get along with people and other puppies and have their vaccinations up to date, in order to participate.

Let the games begin! How does the first play go down, you ask? Plenty of doggy toys are placed inside the stadium and are switched out every 20 minutes. Producers say toys that make the loudest noise or are sausage-shaped get the most attention. Peanut butter is smudged around the camera lenses to motivate puppies to lick the camera. Around 2 kilograms of peanut butter, 7 kilograms of dry dog food, 500 dog treats and 250 toys are used for each years show.

There is a veterinarian on site during the program’s production as well as representatives from the Humane Society. Each of the shelters whose dogs are being featured are also present during production to ensure the safety of the competitors and to provide puppy breaks every 30 minutes. This year marks the 14th edition of the Puppy Bowl. Team Ruff and Team Fluff are back with referee Dan Schachner in charge of calling the shots.

To celebrate the countdown for the 2018 Puppy Bowl, Animal Planet jam-packed its teaser with … 100% cuteness. The video shows an adorable puppy coming out of a bowl. At the end, there is a short reference to Baha Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out.” Every Super Bowl has cheerleaders and the Puppy Bowl is not an exception. The cheerleaders for the 2018 Puppy Bowl are a surprise, but at the 2017 event, a team of rescue rabbits and guinea pigs cheered the “puppy-athletes.”